Stern Cleat Weep

I have a 1990 392 Commander. The last couple of years when the boat is shrink wrapped outside the vertical mounted cleat on the starboard side weeps a trail of brown down to the deck. The shrink wrap is drip dry on the interior and I have dust on the teak where the opening on the teak leads down to the cleat. I have none of this during the summer only in the winter. This year it looks like I also have a small puddle under the cleat. I am on the boat every Sunday and there is no moisture anywhere that I see. I think this weekend I will pull out a fitting installed for fishing and put a camera into he breach and take a look. BUT what is going on?

Replies to This Discussion

That is hopefully rust and not whatever material is being used as a backing to mount the cleat. Stainless steel is just that - stainLESS, not stain-free. Remove the cleat, check the hardware and structure where it mounts, replace anything suspicious, rebed with some Boat Life or equivalent.

It does not seem like rust or ?? The issue is I can not get to the rear cleats. I have fishing pole electrical fittings across the back of the boat that are not in use. I am pulling the nearest one Sunday and putting a snake camera inside. There was also about an oz of water under that cleat. It could have been snow (I really hope). Just dont understand why nothing at all in the summer but I get this in the winter?

No brown dripping on the interior of the boat for the last 3 weeks. But I can see some brown on the bottom of the cleat backing bottom. Not real sure what to do? It looks pretty solid to me. I hit it with a wrench and it also seems solid.

If it is coming from a leak somewhere, it may have nothing to do with the cleat. It may be seeping from a leaking fitting above where this is coming out. Perhaps the boat is sitting at a different angle that causes this to happen when the boat is on the hard. It is trapped in the hull or is leaking somewhere else all summer.

Well... it must be leaking from the rub rail (either from above and or below) and running onto a thick fiberglass looking backing plate for the cleat. I guess the best thing to do is re-bed the entire rub rail top and bottom all the way around the boat. Couldn't image if I had a balsa cored boat what would be happening!

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